'Liquid gold' set to gain more customers in China

Mediterranean olive oil companies scent huge market opportunities

Zhang Min would be very happy to be able to buy a 250-milliliter bottle of Spanish olive oil for what he pays for a 2,500-milliliter bottle of peanut oil.

For the 34-year-old human resources specialist at a multinational company in Beijing, that would be a good deal. Zhang thinks of olive oil as "liquid gold" that has many more health benefits than traditional Chinese cooking oils such as soybean, peanut and palm oils.